


Not Fancy Stuff

by CriticalRolemance (LiveLaughLoveLarry)



Series: Sorcery and Cynicism [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Campaign 1 (Critical Role), Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Gentle Kissing, Kissing, Love, M/M, Picnics, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, how many tags for fluff can I tag (the limit does not exist)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22674313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLoveLarry/pseuds/CriticalRolemance
Summary: Vax and Gilmore hang out on a roof being sweet and in love. That’s it. That's the fic. Who needs plot when you could have emotions?~*~*~“You made me climb all these blasted stairs for nothing?”Vax opens his mouth, then closes it again. “I guess I did,” he says sheepishly. “Sorry. Builds character?”“Unforgivable,” Gilmore says. “I am already a character. Many people tell me so.”Vax laughs again. “You are,” he says, stepping in close. “My favourite character. Here, let me make it up to you.”“How?”“You’ll see.” Vax smiles. “Do you trust me?”Gilmore’s heart skips a beat, but his eyes are steady. “I do.”
Relationships: Shaun Gilmore/Vax'ildan
Series: Sorcery and Cynicism [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1633927
Comments: 4
Kudos: 56





	Not Fancy Stuff

**Author's Note:**

> Why yes this is just another sappy fluffy Established Relationship Vax’ilmore fic. I wanted it, you wanted it (you know you wanted it), et voila. 
> 
> How many sappy fluffy Established Relationship Vax’ilmore fics can I write? The limit does not exist. Why are they on a roof? Because the idea popped into my head and wouldn’t leave. When am I going to finish the super angsty Caleb fic I have fifteen pages of disconnected snippets for? Shhhhh stop asking so many questions. ~~I’m a writer, which means I spend a lot of time pointedly Not Writing things.~~
> 
> Title from “King Of My Heart” by Taylor Swift. “Up on the roof with a school[boy] crush…”

Gilmore’s legs ache as he climbs the monumental steps up to Whitestone Castle, squinting against the setting sun. He mutters something rude under his breath about ostentatious nobles and their showboating. It’s hypocritical at best, given that Gilmore is prone to a little ostentatiousness from time to time, and he’s not normally opposed to the idea. But this evening (and most evenings these days, really), he’s drained from a long day of work -- restocking Whitestone’s supplies of potions and magical items, keeping the shielding spells up, not to mention trying to figure out what the blasted doomsday device in the basement is. It’s enough to make him ache from head to toe, and usually all he wants at the end of the day is to submerge himself in scalding hot water until he’s as wrinkled as a dried date. 

Tonight, however, he climbs up the long staircase to the castle. Because tonight, his love is waiting for him. And tomorrow, his love will leave, running headlong back into danger, to risk his life in the pursuit of saving the world.

“Same old, same old,” he mutters. He pauses at the landing for a moment, leaning against the railing to catch his breath and gauge the number of steps left. He wonders if it would be lazy to use a spell to cover the last few hundred feet. It probably would be, and he’s not entirely sure he has enough juice in the tank, but he can’t help considering it. He’s  _ so _ sore.

He sighs, and is about to start up the last flight of stairs, when something stops him. There’s no sound, no motion, nothing at all, and yet -- the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He turns, peering into the shadows for a form he’s sure he will not see if it wishes to hide from him.

“Vax?” he calls, his voice soft in the twilight. “Is that you, my dear?”

Silence hangs for a moment, then another, and another, and just as Gilmore begins to think he must have been mistaken, a tall, lithe form emerges from the shadows. He’s dressed all in black, his dark hair hanging loose by his face, and the shadows still seem to cling to him as he steps forward, but the smile he gives Gilmore is like the sun lives in his eyes. 

“You’re getting better at that,” Vax says. “How did you know I was there?”

“I would know you anywhere,” Gilmore says. “Now are you going to just stand there, or are you going to greet me properly?”

Vax laughs, a sound Gilmore has not heard enough these days. It makes him look so much younger -- or at least, makes him look closer to his own age, instead of looking like he has carried the weight of the world on his shoulders for longer than a lifetime. He steps forward, pressing a soft kiss to Gilmore’s mouth. “Hello, my love,” he murmurs. “Welcome home.”

And Gilmore is home. He is so far from the places he has called home, from his shop or his family, but he’s home. He’s not even staying in the castle, but he’s  _ home. _ When Vax’s hand wraps tight around his, when his eyes are soft and warm and see nothing but him, when he smiles and murmurs the sweetest words, Gilmore is home. 

“How was your day?” Vax asks, leaning against the railing.

“Long,” Gilmore says, grimacing. “It’s not particularly complicated work, but it’s taxing, doing so much of it at once.”

“I’m sorry,” Vax says. “Thank you.”

Gilmore waves him off. “Of course,” he says. “We all do our part. But tonight,  _ your _ part is going to involve giving me a massage.”

Vax laughs again, and Gilmore would do anything to keep him laughing like that. “An acceptable deal,” Vax says. “It’s the least I can do for the man who is responsible for keeping this city protected.”

“Allura is helping. You know that.”

“I do.” Vax smiles. “I’d give her a massage too, if she wanted.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“I think she has her own, ah, personal massager.”

Gilmore laughs. “Yes, I think she might at that.” He glances at the stairs again and sighs. He really doesn’t want to climb them. “Well, come on,” he says, half to Vax and half to himself. “The sooner we get inside, the sooner I can sit down and you can rub the ache out of my shoulders.”

“Oh, we’re not going inside.”

“We’re not?”

“No.”

“Then what-” He pauses. “You made me climb all these blasted stairs for  _ nothing_?”

Vax opens his mouth, then closes it again. “I guess I did,” he says sheepishly. “Sorry. Builds character?”

“Unforgivable,” Gilmore says. “I am already a character. Many people tell me so.”

Vax laughs again. “You are,” he says, stepping in close. “My favourite character. Here, let me make it up to you.”

“How?”

“You’ll see.” Vax smiles. “Do you trust me?”

Gilmore’s heart skips a beat, but his eyes are steady. “I do.”

“Good.” Vax steps even closer, wrapping his arms around Gilmore. “Hold on, and don’t block the wings.”

“What? I -- woah!”

A pair of dark, feathered wings shoot out from the back of Vax’s armour, pumping once, twice, and they’re airborne, soaring higher and higher. Gilmore watches the ground fall away below them, almost disappearing in the fading light. It makes him dizzy and he closes his eyes, wrapping his arms tightly around Vax’s shoulders and letting himself be carried away. 

“Coming in for a landing,” Vax murmurs in his ear a few moments later. “Careful, it’s a bit sloped.” Gilmore doesn’t open his eyes. He’s tired, and he trusts Vax implicitly. And sure enough, a moment later he feels Vax’s feet gently touch down,  lowering Gilmore’s feet to the tiles a moment later. 

Gilmore lets his arms pull loose around Vax, only his hands still clasped behind his neck. His eyes are still closed as he presses their foreheads together, taking in the feeling of Vax standing solid and warm in front of him, the smell of his shampoo and his sachet, the sound of his breathing. Vax kisses him softly, and Gilmore smiles, tasting honey on his tongue and “I love you” on his lips. 

“You can open your eyes, you know,” Vax murmurs after a moment. 

Gilmore smiles. “I know,” he says. “I will. I just want to remember this.” 

“I’ll remind you.”

“You’d better.” Gilmore opens his eyes.

The view from the roof is incredible. They’re perched atop the second-highest tower, the city laid out before them in the fading red light of sunset. Candlelight glows in a thousand windows, and Gilmore can just make out the faintest sheen of the spell dome keeping them protected. The mountains rise up on either side, even higher than the castle, and the forest stretches out before them.

“There’s stuff to see up here, too,” Vax says, and Gilmore follows his gesture to see a thick fur blanket stretched over the roof tiles, and a wicker basket that, now that he’s noticed it, seems to be emanating several  _ delicious _ aromas. “Sit, please,” Vax says, and Gilmore is powerless to do anything but obey. 

“You spoil me,” Gilmore says as he watches Vax dig into the basket, pulling out bowls of roast chicken, rolls, and fresh fruit.

Vax smiles. “You deserve it,” he says. “And I don’t often get the chance, so. Wanted to take advantage of it while I have the chance.”

Gilmore chuckles softly. “Are you going to feed me by hand?”

“Do you want me to?”

It’s less that Gilmore wants him to, and more that he wants to know he would. And he does know. But sometimes it scares him, how much he cares, how deep in he finds himself, while Vax… it seems so easy for him. Gilmore knows he cares too, knows he just shows it differently, knows that carelessness is a mask that hides his own fear. But he wishes there were fewer masks, at least between them. When it’s just them. No one to see, no one to judge, no one to pretend for. Just them.

Vax plucks a strawberry from the fruit bowl, dangling it before Gilmore’s face. “Open up,” he says playfully. Gilmore obeys, biting into the succulent fruit, feeling the sweet juice spill down his throat. Vax tosses the stem aside, reaching back to the bowl to pluck a grape. This time Gilmore’s lips close around Vax’s fingers, his tongue sweeping across them before Vax pulls away with a laugh. Gilmore catches his hand, tugging it back to press a soft kiss to gentle fingers. 

“I love you,” Gilmore murmurs. 

“And I love you,” Vax replies, his voice as solid as the roof beneath them, as even as the horizon over the forest. 

Again, he says it so simply, and yet it carries such weight, it takes Gilmore’s breath away. They are words he spent so many months imagining, words he spent so many nights dreaming about and days thinking as they danced around each other until -- dreams became spoken, and words became soft touches and tender kisses and flushed cheeks.

It still seems a little like a dream sometimes. But dreams are rarely so bittersweet and complicated, joy mixed with longing and pride with fear.

Gilmore’s gaze slips away to look out over the city. “Any idea when you’ll be back?” he asks.

He feels Vax sigh beside him, the romance of the moment suddenly fading slightly as they both remember why they’re here. “Hopefully not more than a few days,” Vax says. “If all goes well.” 

Gilmore sends a fervent prayer to whatever god might be listening that it does. “I’ll miss you.”

Vax’s smile is wry. “You’ll barely have time to miss me,” he says. “You keep so busy. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“I always know it,” Gilmore says. “I always miss you. You know that.”

“I do.” Vax sighs. “I wish I could make it not so.”

“You have to go.”

“I do.”

“You would not be you if you stayed. You would not be the Vax I fell in love with.”

“I know. I still wish it were easier on you.” 

“Many of the most valuable things are not easy,” Gilmore says. “You are worth it.”

Vax kisses him, the touch soft and light and yet so full of emotion that it takes Gilmore’s breath away. “You are more than I ever dreamed I could be lucky enough to have,” he murmurs. “You are more than I have ever deserved.”

Gilmore sighs. “One day I will persuade you that is not true.”

Vax’s face is carefully blank. “Perhaps.”

Gilmore sighs again, and reaches for the food. He really is famished. They eat in comfortable silence, fingers occasionally brushing as they reach for the same roll, and eventually Gilmore just grabs Vax’s hand, forcing him to use his left hand to continue eating. He doesn’t complain, and to see the nimbleness of his fingers, Gilmore would never guess he wasn’t ambidextrous.

At last, they both lie back against the roof tiles, bellies pleasantly full and fingers pleasantly twined. The stars are out now, brilliant diamonds against the black of the sky. Gilmore finds his eyes fixing on a particularly bright one, a familiar children’s rhyme on his lips as he breathes a silent wish. 

_ Keep him safe, _ he thinks to the stars.  _ Bring him home_.

It is as much as he can do.

“Have you ever been to Draconia?” Vax asks suddenly.

Gilmore shakes his head. “Not exactly on the way to… well, anywhere,” he says. “And they have more than enough magic to not need any of my little toys.”

“Jealous?” Vax teases.

Gilmore laughs. “Not hardly,” he says. “They have some nice spells and magical items, but  _ gods, _ those dragonborns can be so stuffy. I’d die of boredom if I lived there.”

“Well, I’ll bring you back a souvenir,” Vax says. “Something as interesting as they are boring. Something worth a little stuffiness. Make myself useful.”

“You know that doesn’t matter to me,” Gilmore says softly. “It is not your usefulness that I value. It is not the things you might bring me. It is the things you are.”

“I know.” Vax looks down. “There are days I wish it wasn’t so. It scares me, sometimes, how much you care.”

“I know,” Gilmore says softly. “Believe me. It sometimes scares me too. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“That’s not exactly reassuring.”

“No.” Gilmore smiles. “Perhaps that’s the fun of it, though. There is no joy without risk.”

Vax is quiet for a long moment. When he finally speaks, his voice is so quiet that Gilmore has to strain to hear him. “I just hate knowing how much of your joy is reliant on something I don’t know if I can give you. On a promise I don’t know if I can keep. And I never want to lie to you.”

“Then don’t,” Gilmore says simply. “Don’t promise forever. Don’t promise tomorrow. Just promise me tonight. That’s enough. Promise me this moment. Promise me right here, right now.”

Vax kisses him. “I promise,” he murmurs, his voice low and rough. “By all the gods, I promise you every bit of this moment I can give.”

Gilmore lets his hands tangle in Vax’s hair, lets them dig into his skin. He feels Vax’s lips fasten on his neck and he gasps, relishing in the feeling of teeth, somehow gentle even as he knows they will leave a mark. That everyone who sees him tomorrow morning will know that every part of his heart, body, and soul belongs to this beautiful raven-haired man. 

“That is all I will ever ask of you,” he whispers. “That is all I need. That is enough.  _ This _ is enough.”

“You deserve more,” Vax says. “And I will pray to whatever god or goddess is listening that I can give it to you. You deserve every luxury I can shower you in.”

“This is luxury,” Gilmore says. “Your hands and your smile and your eyes and your kisses -- this is all I could ever dream of.”

“You’re a sap.”

“I’m in love,” Gilmore corrects. “Just because I don’t get melancholy about it -- you do realize that’s not a required element of being romantic, right?”

“I’m  _ dramatic_,” Vax says, splaying himself theatrically across Gilmore’s chest. “I can’t  _ help _ it. It’s not a  _ phase_; this is who I  _ am_.”

Gilmore laughs. He can’t help it, he laughs until his eyes water and his stomach hurts. “I’m in love with an idiot,” he says between gasping breaths that make Vax’s head rattle. “And I wouldn’t change it -- or you -- for the world.”

“Because I’m your world?” Vax’s grin is teasing and terrible and Gilmore loves it and him.

“Oh, shut up,” he says, which they both know is as good as a confirmation.

As their laughter fades into the night, Gilmore finds himself yawning. 

“Looks like someone is ready for bed,” Vax says, sitting up. “Got a big day ahead of you tomorrow.”

“You’re one to talk,” Gilmore says. “I might be draining my magic dry daily rebuilding this city and keeping it safe, but I’m not travelling halfway across the world to fight a  _ dragon_.”

“ _Technically_ , we’re travelling halfway across the world to summon a  _ demon _ to fight a dragon  _ for _ us.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Gilmore asks. “Because to me it just sounds like you’re travelling halfway across the world and fighting a dragon _ and _ a demon.”

“You say potato.”

Gilmore shakes his head. “You terrify and amaze me in equal measure,” he says. “Let’s make sure you get some sleep before… whatever you’re fighting.”

Vax stretches, climbing to his feet as Gilmore pushes himself off the blanket. Vax offers him a hand, pulling him upright with a strength and speed that always surprises Gilmore a little. 

“Hi,” he says, from his position tucked in the crook of Vax’s arm. 

“Hello.” Vax rolls his shoulders, a look of concentration on his face that is slowly replaced by confusion, then shock, then chagrin. “Oh. Whoops.”

“What is it?”

Vax grimaces. “It’s been more than an hour,” he says. “I didn’t think that far ahead. My wings won’t be back until sunrise.”

Gilmore laughs. “Let’s see what I can do,” he says, tracing a rune in the air and muttering a quick incantation. He feels the faintest sensation of warmth in his bones, but it fizzles out almost immediately. “Ah. Nothing,” he says sagely. “Nothing is what I can do.”

Vax chuckles, and Gilmore can’t help laughing too, which sets Vax off into full-blown hysterics, and they both have to sit down again to keep from losing their balance on the roof.

“Well,” Gilmore says when he’s finally caught his breath. “Guess that means we’re stuck up here.”

“Tragic.”

“There are certainly worse places to be.”

“I’ve been in several.”

Gilmore smiles. “That you have, my dear.”

“Like a sewer,” Vax says. “Or the inside of a black dragon, that was pretty bad. Or-”

“I really don’t require examples,” Gilmore says, laughing. “I believe you.”

Vax’s grin is toothy and mischievous. “You believe a dissembling rogue like little old me?”

“You are neither little nor old,” Gilmore says. “And you may be dissembling to some, but never to me. The only roguish behaviour you show me is-”

“Stealing your heart?”

“Well, that’s a little too corny, even for me,” Gilmore says with a crooked smile. “I was going to say your honeyed words. You just don’t use them to con me. You use them to tell me the truth.”

Vax’s eyes are soft. “You are my truth,” he says. “You are the most valuable thing I have ever laid hands on. When you look at me, I want to be a better man.”

“You are,” Gilmore says. “You are a great man. Just ask Westruun.”

“I don’t need to,” Vax says. “The opinion that matters most is right in front of me.”

Gilmore’s smile grows soft. “And I will tell you over and over until you believe me,” he says. “You are a great man. You are a kind man. You are a generous man. You are the type of man I am proud to know, proud to call mine.”

Vax ducks his head to hide his face in Gilmore’s shoulder, but Gilmore can see the tips of his ears turning red. He reaches up to run his fingers through Vax’s hair, twisting the long strands around his knuckles.

“You make me sound like a god,” Vax murmurs against Gilmore’s robe.

Gilmore laughs. “Perhaps to me,” he says. “But you are so beautifully, wonderfully mortal.” 

Vax yawns. “Well then,” he says. “This beautiful mortal could use some sleep.”

“Mmmm.” Gilmore stretches out on the blanket. “Sleep sounds lovely.”

Vax smiles down at him for a moment, then flops down beside him, curling into his side. “You sound lovely.”

“That didn’t even make sense.”

“Your face doesn’t make sense.”

Gilmore laughs, ruffling Vax’s hair. “You are ridiculous,” he says, dropping a kiss to the top of his head. “Go to sleep, my love.”

It doesn’t take him long to follow his own advice. 

**Author's Note:**

> The idea of them getting stuck on the roof got twice as funny when I remembered the Earrings of Whisper, which means there are two options:
> 
> 1) Vax completely forgot about the earring because he is a disaster bisexual and I love him.
> 
> 2) Vax totally remembered the earring but he would absolutely rather spend the night on the roof under the stars with his boyfriend than admit to his sister that he got stuck and he’s so valid.


End file.
